Tuesday, 26 November 2013

I am linking up with Sunny Days in Second Grade for another My Truth Monday. This time we are talking about dream vacations.....well I have always had the travel bug, in fact I once thought about being a travel journalist, I couldn't think of a more perfect job, apart from teaching :)

So here is mine!

Don't forget to enter my 200 follower giveaway, just click here and here. There are some fabulous prizes from some awesome TpT sellers and bloggers!

Monday, 25 November 2013

Welcome back for Day 2 of my 200 follower Celebration Giveaway! Today you have the opportunity to win Winners choice from more of these fabulous ladies at their TpT stores, so make sure you head over there to check out what you could win!

What do you have to do? Enter the Rafflecopter below, I am giving to prizes away again today, so don't miss out!

Sunday, 24 November 2013

I was so excited to see my little blog reach 200 followers! To celebrate this I am having an awesome giveaway with lots of fabulous TpT sellers contributing! Have a look at some of these amazing ladies each of these ladies is giving you a winners choice from their store, woohoo! Mel at Frog the Pond is giving a $10 TpT voucher.

Two lucky winners will get 2 items from my store.

All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below....easy peasy! Then come back tomorrow for the next round!

Sunday, 17 November 2013

Time to announce the winners of the 3 giveaways that I have had running for the last week.

Congratulations Cherie! You will receive an email from me soon. Hope you have your choice ready!

A huge congratulations to Narelle! You have won the Middle Primary Targeting Maths Book, yay! Blake Education will be sending you an email soon, with the book to follow.

Finally, congratulations to Judith! You have won a $20 voucher from Blake Education, you will be receiving an email soon with your code!

I hope all of you enjoy your prizes.......stay tuned there will soon be another celebration for this little blog reaching a 200 followers milestone and I am holding my breath for my FB page to reach 1000 likes! Hoping for a combined celebration, what fun!

Wait, there's more! I just found out that Educents is giving a $5 credit on any purchase over $10. This credit can be used for future purchases. What a great opportunity to purchase the Grade 3/4 ELA Bundle! Just click on the pic below to get your copy!

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

I just love alliteration, which has nothing to do with my freebie for you today!

I listed this yesterday, this game focusses on regrouping ten ones into one ten. Kiddos will roll a dice and "feed" their fish the correct amount of MAB ones blocks. When they reach ten or more they will regroup their blocks into one ten and the leftover ones get left in the fish bowl to create the next ten. The kiddo that reaches 100 (or has the most) wins the game. Want a copy? Just click on the pic above to go to my store.Want a chance to get something else for free? There are currently 3 giveaways running on my blog, that's right I said 3!! You have the chance to win a Targeting Maths Middle Primary BLM Book or a $20 voucher to spend at Blake Education's end of year sale.Or you could win any item from my store by entering this Rafflecopter, you could even pick up an awesome deal at Educents.

Last one! Head over to The Teacher Studio to enter her fabulous Giveaway to win $10 worth of items from my store.

Monday, 11 November 2013

The Teacher Studio is having a huge giveaway at her blog to celebrate her one year bog anniversary and her new blog design. There are many bloggers and TpT sellers who are contributing to this giveaway including ME! You have the chance to win $10 worth of products from my store! Woohoo! Make sure you enter before Tuesday.

If you are wondering about some of the items you could choose from my store here are a few of my latest!

That Cat ran! is a beginner reader with a focus on the 'an' blend. It is the third book in the That Cat! series.

Crazy Doubling Koalas is a game that has 3 differentiated gameboards ranging from just doubling a 1-6 dice to doubling plus 1 and 2, doubling take 1 and 2.

Are you looking for some awesome ELA activities for your 3rd or 4th graders? You need to look no further than this fabulous bundle available at Educents. There are 34 different activities in this bundle from some AHMAZING teachers.

I am so very excited to be a part of the bundle with Educents! I know you will love my Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives Category Sort bundle. This is a great way to get students thinking beyond what is a verb, adjective or noun and allows students to sort them into categories such as textures, size, colour in the Adjectives set or action, thought, speech in the Verbs set. The Nouns pack includes people, places, objects, animals. Here is a quick sneak peek!

There are many other products in our bundle to get your kids learning!

Centers, printables, vocabulary, book studies, interactive notebooking and so much more!

Now that you are here why not head over to Teach 123 to see what she is offering and you never know there might be a treat for you there!

But that's not all! Since you are on my blog I would like to give you a chance to win something extra for free! Please follow me or pin something or shout it out on FB and enter to win any item from my store. Good luck!

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Did you know that Blake Education is having a HUGE end of year sale? I have used many Blake Education resources over the years and quite frankly a teacher resource sale is in the same category as a shoe sale...not to be missed!

As a special offer Blake Education is offering all Australian readers of Mrs Poultney's Ponderings a chance to win a Targeting Maths BLM book in celebration of their end of year sale or our international readers a $20 gift voucher. The Targeting Maths Series is a comprehensive resource for primary schools. It has been designed to provide busy teachers with all the additional material they need when teaching mathematics. All aspects of the mathematics curriculum are covered in this twelve book series.

Just enter the appropriate Rafflecopter for your chance to win! Australian readers enter the first Rafflecopter to win a Middle Primary Targeting Maths Book.

or International Readers enter the second Rafflecopter to win a $20 voucher to Blake Education Teaching Resources. What better time to spend a voucher than sale time!

I used the Targeting Maths series a few years ago and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much more comprehensive they are now! I love the problem solving section and the assessment pages for the end of each unit.

I also noticed that these gorgeous Gigglers series is on sale as well. I have seen these books recently and I loved the bright illustrations, the stories are funny and keep the kids engaged in reading at a level that is appropriate. These would be great for home readers or guided reading groups.“These books are all part of Blake Education’s end of year sales! Save up to 65% onBest-selling Literacy Readers such as Gigglers and Go Facts as well as well as quality Arts, English, Maths and Science Teacher Resources. Visitwww.blake.com.au/massivesale for literacy OR Visit: www.blake.com.au/crazyrsale for teacher resource.

Saturday, 9 November 2013

I am making a huge effort to make sure I didn't miss this week and I have to tell you.....this week kicked my butt!

I am trying to make myself more accountable for my exercise by instagramming a photo everyday that I walk. This is the 1 photo I got up this week...yes I said , I am struggling with fitting in exercise around working and kids. I WILL do better!

My baby boy turned 9 this week...here he is getting his "I just woke up and it is my birthday" hug from his Dad. This kid gives the best hugs.

I subbed at 2 really tough schools this week....man did I earn my money! So I was super happy to get back to my regular 2 days with my grade 2's. We started our Remembrance Day poppies for our display on Monday, you can read how we created these beauties here.

We finished off this week with the Birthday boy's party at laser tag. It was such an awesome time, 13 boys running around full of sugar, loved it. These kiddos also go to the same school that I teach at, so they thought it was a blast to be laser tagging Mrs Poultney. The cake was all my own work...I like to say it was amatureish simplistic.

Finally, I have been busy getting my blog ready for some awesome giveaways and special deals coming up, so make sure you check back this week, there will be many chances to win something!

Friday, 8 November 2013

Monday is Remembrance Day here in Australia. It is a day we stop for a minutes silence to honour and remember those who have served their country in the military and those who did not return from conflicts. As some of you may know it is something that I take seriously and I feel it is important to pass on to the younger generation just how important these people are to us and our history.

I am a proud military wife and daughter and I know how important it is to those military men and women to have the public recognise their sacrifice. On Remembrance Day I show photos of men and women in the military helping people in their various roles and we talk about conflicts past and present.

Poppies are worn because after some of the bloodiest battles in World War 1 and 2 red poppies sprang forth from the soil in Spring, the poppy seeds had been churned up by the soldiers boots and fertilised from the bodies of the soldiers. They were also immortalised in the poem Flanders Fields written by John McCrae.

Every year in my class we make poppies as part of these commemorations, this year I was inspired by this pin, click on the pic to go to the source.

So this is how we did it!

I was going to use coffee filters (but didn't have any) so this is paper towel, we painted it with a red watercolour.

We used a grey watercolour wash on a small piece of paper, A5 size ( half a letter sized paper)

When it was dry we cut out the petals and arranged them on our paper, then glued them down.

Cut out stems and leaves!

To make the black center in the poppy we lightly touched it with some black watercolour on the end of a paintbrush. If you press too hard the black will spread across the petals because the paper towel sucks up the watercolour. Small, small dab only.

Here they all are together! I love how they all look a little different! On Monday they will be displayed with some writing about Remembrance Day.